Snowflake tells the story of Debbie, her uncle Billy and her gloriously imaginative Mam, Maeve. Like Mam and Billy, Debbie is brighter than bright. Billy lives in a caravan and tells stories of Greek myths and stargazing. Mam has a room called the Tabernacle filled with poems and talismans. Debbie goes to Trinity, Dublin and meets Xanthe and the two of them navigate pubs, boys and essays. Themes of coming of age, mental illness, identity and belonging collide with characters who sparkle with originality, and gleam with hope despite their flaws and their pasts.. Louise Nealon creates a rich visual landscape of Dublin and the farm where Debbie lives as well as a rich interior landscape of dreams and reality. A lovely novel, deftly woven and full of hope.

Snowflake is a beautifully complex piece of literary fiction which is, at its heart, a coming of age story. Debbie White lives on a dairy farm in Ireland with her mother, Maeve and uncle, Billy. The story chronicles her first year as a student studying English at Trinity College in Dublin.

In Snowflake, Debbie straddles life on the farm with her family and life at university. We see her trying to make friends, study, work on the farm, look after her mother, and cope with the transition to university and academia. For anyone who has been to university, or is faced with the prospect of doing so, the struggles and anxieties Debbie has will be familiar. Coming from a small village and working class background, she feels like an outsider among the other students and finds herself constantly comparing herself to others.

If you’re looking for an action driven story in Snowflake, you won’t find it. What you will find is an incredibly sensitive reflection on themes such as friendship, family, mental health, addiction, childhood experiences and class. Everyone in the story has some level of mental health difficulties, which is unsurprising considering we all have mental health and experience things like loss which have a direct affect on how we are able to cope. But it’s also refreshing because often with stories with these themes it is all-consuming and usually limited to one character. In Snowflake we see that everyone has their sensitivities, and that everyone needs support. We also see how important community, family, and support systems are when tackling mental health difficulties.

Debbie’s relationship with her mother, her uncle, her university friends, even the imagined connection between herself and the boy who stands at the back of mass, will resonate with pretty much anyone who picks up this book. The White family dynamics are eccentric, but not beyond the pale. Similarly, Debbie’s relationship with Xanthe is a very close reflection on how we form friendships, and the dynamics of those friendships, when we are thrust into a new environment with people from all walks of life.

I especially enjoyed the storytelling elements within Snowflake. Louise Nealon goes to great lengths to show us that everyone has a story to tell, whether real, sensationalised, or wholly imagined.

Snowflake is an incredibly human debut. Nealon’s style of writing is poetic, sometimes funny, often heartbreaking and always relatable - for me at least. I’m excited to read more by her in the future!

Thank you to Netgalley, Louise Nealon and Manilla Press for supplying me with an advanced reader copy of Snowflake.

I didn't initially like this book. I just couldn't get into it and thought about giving up. But I read on a little and then I was hooked. Completely hooked. I love the honesty and the quirkiness, the characters who all have a depth to them that is gradually revealed as the story goes on. It made me laugh. Nearly made me cry. And the language was beautiful. Lots of quirky, original imagery.

Well-written and readable tale about an 18-year-old Irish girl and her eccentric family.

Snowflake skilfully blends humour with darker moments and the characters are memorable. But it was the type of book where not a lot happens plot-wise for a while. And whilst I've read books of that type and the past and loved them, with Snowflake I wasn't always gripped.

I think a lot of people will love this. I didn't, but I liked it just fine. :-)

Set in Ireland - as is the current trend - a girl goes from the family dairy farm to university. At home is her needy, mentally unwell mother and uncle, at university she meets a needy, mentally unwell friend. Could be all a bit bleak but there is joy in the lead character's discovery of life beyond the farm, realisation that no one has the answers and acceptance of her family.

I did feel at one point that it was going to take a turn for the surreal with the 'dreams', but that angle seems to fizzle out - probably for the best. An enjoyable book, highlighting that the 'Snowflake' generation really don't have it as easy as the media like to portray.

Snowflake is an absolute triumph. It's a story of love, loss, heartbreak, humour, relationships, and friendships.

Debbie lives in Ireland on a dairy farm with her mother and uncle Billy - Billy lives in a caravan at the bottom of the garden and her mother is battling mental health issues whilst locked in her bedroom interpreting her dreams.

Debbie's relationships with her uncle, her mother, and her new foundling relationships at University are so richly described that you become so invested in each character. Louise Nealon has created the most wonderful characters, raw but truly honest.
Mental Health is an important theme that is interwoven through the book and snippets of the past enlighten the reader as to how the characters have become shaped by their past.

I thoroughly enjoyed Snowflake and ran a gamut of emotions whilst engrossed in its pages.

Debbie is an eighteen year old who has just started university in Dublin. Her mother was her age when she had Debbie and her mother has mental health issues and Debbie mostly relies on her uncle who lives in a caravan next to their home. This is one of these very well written books where not a whole lot happens but it really hooks you in and makes for an excellent read. I loved it and expect to see it top a lot of 'best books of 2021' lists!

Debbie is just starting her time at university. She's still living at home with her mother and uncle on their dairy farm. They story explores her newly found freedom and her family relationships.
I loved that she was not very street wise and she struggled with the changes in her life. The awkwardness of trying to fit in was spot on. That sense of her being outside of her comfort zone was really clearly written.
There is a theme running through the book about mental illness which I think is very well handled. It's not sensationalist and is just part of the life of the characters. It's almost so much a part of their lives that they don't even recognise it as an issue. I think that is very true for a lot of people, growing up in a slightly unusual home isn't unusual until you move outside and see how other people live.
I look forward to seeing what the author writes next.

Really enjoyed this.
A relatable coming of age tale about starting university, growing up and finding friend anxieties but with so much more.
It felt very Normal People-ish but then took its own shape and form- great for a debut novel.
An excellent and honest way to tackle mental health issues without dragging the book down and making it miserable.
Very clever weaving the theme of dreams throughout.
A very unique take on things and different style, well worth a read.

Snowflake is a novel that looks at feeling like an outsider, mental health, and knowing your home, as an eighteen-year-old from the Irish countryside starts at university. Debbie lives on a dairy farm with her mother and Uncle Billy, having grown up with Billy's stories and her mother's seeming eccentricities. When she starts at Trinity College, commuting into Dublin from the farm, she finds the two worlds hard to inhabit, whether it's dealing with things with her family not going well or navigating her new friendship with Xanthe and Debbie's own relationship with going out drinking.

This book was a bit unexpected in some ways, as the start feels like any novel about an outsider figure starting university and some of the difficulties of being caught between the countryside and the city, but then later on there's quite a lot of serious tragedy and mental health stuff, including someone diagnosed with bipolar disorder and an attempted suicide. The novel has a lot to say about mental health (like Debbie's feelings about her own failed attempt at university counselling when her friend seems to be easily diagnosed with depression, and the fact that when one of the characters from the countryside needs mental health care they have to go into the city) and maybe the blurb's focus on 'eccentricity' and weirdness recreate some of the issues within the novel about the intersection between mental health and seeming "weird" or an outsider.

The novel itself is an engaging read with quite a fast pace that doesn't dwell on particular events for long, though it takes place over only a number of months. In spite of the sometimes sad subject matter, it has a general positivity, especially from the ending, that shows how people can feel at home and in the right place even when they don't feel "normal".

I had a lot of fun reading Snowflake. There were a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, sadness, shock and love whilst reading. Snowflake is an incredibly relatable literary debut by Neason. It's written beautifully, a great length with steady and continuous pacing and I think it will become a really big hit.

The characters are all unique to themselves, and develop throughout, continually learning about themselves and each other. It really does hold true that you can;t make a jidgement about another peron because you really don't know the truth about what they're going through and they're own struggles might be.

Content warnings for mental illness e.g bipolar disorder and for attempted suicide.

Thanks to NetGalley, Bonnier Books UK and Louise Neason for an eArc copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Snowflake is a painfully beautiful book about coming of age, mental illness and family ties. Debbie, the protagonist and narrator, has lived her entire life in the small community of her hometown and dairy farm, mostly in the company of her eccentric mother, Maeve, and her knowledgeable uncle Billy who stands in as both her mentor and confidant. As she begins her studies at Trinity College, Dublin, Debbie now faces the challenges of growing up, fitting in, and understanding urban culture whilst balancing family life and the deterioration of her mother’s mental health – as well as her own.

While Debbie, Maeve and Billy are complex and fascinating characters, others, especially Xanthe, her “best-friend” in Dublin, feel stereotypically one-dimensional – although this could be because we are viewing them from Debbie’s limited (and sometimes prejudiced) point-of-view.

Louise Nealon is an extremely perceptive writer who managed to convey the awkwardness of growing up, and distinctive Irishness of her characters and setting. This is a book that keeps you reading, engaged in the fable-like story that – like a dream – can dramatically change, sweep you off your feet and shock you with raw and painful imagery. Sadly, the story’s conclusion does not quite live up to its dramatic midpoint.

This book is gorgeous to look at, but unfortunately the inside was just not for me!

I first read a sampler of this book and thoroughly enjoyed it, I found the first few chapters to be intriguing and interesting and rated the first part five stars... Unfortunately somewhere towards the middle of the book, I lost touch with it a little where big events were glossed over very quickly, emotionlessly and in a very matter of fact way.

The focus of the book is on mental illnesses and how it impacts, not only the individuals who have mental illnesses but how it impacts others.

I got major Normal People vibes from the writing style and the protagonist, Debbie, shows similar personality traits and characteristics to Marianne from Normal People.

I had very high expectations for this book but I think this may have been its downfall for me personally.

Thank you to NetGalley and Manilla Press for the ARC of this book.

Out May 13th 2021

Snowflake by Louise Nealon is about a young woman finding her feet as a student and balancing her university experience with living with her mother and uncle who both experience mental health issues.

Very different book. It’s so hard to explain what I mean.

It is not a sad read, but at the same time it’s kind of sad. I don’t think this book is supposed to be funny, but somehow I found most of the chapters to be quite funny. I kind of feel bad for it, because I don’t know if I should laugh or not? The chapters alone seem very random, but at the same time, each and one of them just seems right... And... Serious topics covered in a not too serious way.

Does that make sense? :D

The writing style is amazing; short chapters, up to the point and no rambling. It keeps you fully focused throughout the entire book.

I would definitely recommend this to everyone.

Can’t wait to read more books written by this author!

P.S. The therapist story was hilarious. Sadly, that’s exactly what happens!

Astonishing debut. Highly original and showcasing beautiful poetic prose.
Just the right balance between hilarious and sad desperation.
Such a unique tale of growing up.
Adored every single character and I so want to go to Cassidys and drink with Uncle Billy.